Let it Be by Cesar Millan

By Cesar Millan

Show of hands — how many of you consider your dogs to be your children? Do you call them your “fur babies” and include them in family events? Maybe celebrate their birthdays, talk to them constantly, feed them scraps from the table?

Well, if you’re doing these things, you’re acting like a lot of dog owners. The problem is, if you are, then you’re doing all of the wrong things for your dogs. As I like to say, in Mexico, dogs are skinny but happy. In other places, they are fat and neurotic.

Related: 5 things you're doing that drive your dog crazy

Considering your dogs to be your children and humanizing them is actually the worst thing you can ever do for them.

This is probably one of the most difficult concepts for people to grasp when I try to teach them how to be Pack Leaders. And I can understand that. We have bred dogs to be cute and cuddly, and it’s completely natural for humans to want to love and coddle cute things.

This is completely natural for humans, but absolutely unnatural for dogs. To prove it, all you have to do is go to a dog park and look at which dogs other dogs gravitate toward, want to play with, and give respect to.

Hint: It’s not the ones we would necessarily describe as cute.

No. It’s the dogs that are calm and assertive. They may be big or small. They may be “cute” or “ugly.” They may even be handicapped in some way, but that doesn’t matter to the other dogs. All they see is energy, and the dogs that project calm, assertive energy are the leaders. That’s how it works in the dog world.

The reason it works is because most dogs need a leader. That’s how they’re designed. Dogs are social animals that live in packs and follow strong leaders, and most dogs do not want to be in charge. In fact, the quickest way to confuse a dog and make it act out badly is to try to force it into a leadership role that it doesn’t want.

And this is exactly what we do when we treat our dogs like little humans, fail to show them leadership, and give them nothing but affection, affection, and affection.

From the human point of view, we’re just being humane. From our dogs’ point of view, we are not.

Imagine that, as a child, you wanted to be a sculptor, and you were actually pretty good at molding clay into statues. It’s what you love to do, and you have talent... and your parents put you on the hockey team instead.

You’re not into sports, you can’t skate, and you’re terrible at hockey, but your parents are there at every game, cheering you on and telling you how good you are. And you hate every second of it.

That is what it’s like for a dog when we don’t let them be a dog, and no amount of praise or treats or affection is going to make your dog any better at not being a dog. This will, however, make your dog neurotic and confused.

The best thing we can do for our canine companions is to honor their instincts by being calm, assertive Pack Leaders, establishing rules, boundaries, and limitations, and giving them exercise, discipline, and affection — in that order.

Stay calm, and let your dogs be dogs.

It's National Dog Day!

Mama wants to add some pics in memory of our family dogs who are no longer with us. According to Mama, Sierra, Jackson, and Louie were fabulous canines and they are truly missed. 

Now here are a few pics of little ole me and Dexter...we are fabulous
dogs too!

8 Toxic Foods for Dogs

To avoid a trip to the animal emergency room, keep your pooch away from these foods
Consumer Reports/ By Julia Calderone / July 30, 2016

Most pet owners know that chocolate is one of the most toxic foods for dogs. But according to a new update from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, there are other unexpected foods that can be can be downright deadly for your pup.

“Dogs in general react a little bit differently to diet variation than we do,” says Martine Hartogensis, D.V.M., the deputy director of the Office of Surveillance and Compliance at the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine. Their digestive systems are simply not as well equipped as ours to process and eliminate certain foods, she says. They are used to eating the same commercial dog food every day, which is designed to provide them with all of the nutrients they need. Human food can throw dogs’ systems out of whack, and can cause both mild and serious health problems. Not all people foods are necessarily toxic foods for dogs, and not all dogs react to foods the same way. For instance, small dogs tend to be more sensitive than large ones.

After monitoring complaints and adverse events through the FDA’s Safety Reporting Portal, the agency has identified the top people foods and ingredients that could land your dog a visit to the animal hospital.

1. Alliums
Onions, garlic, and chives—and any foods seasoned with them—are a big no-no for your pooch, as they’ve been associated with a disorder called hemolytic anemia, says Hartogensis, which can damage a dog’s red blood cells. The same goes for spices such as onion and garlic powder, too. If your dog happens to eat any of these alliums, watch out for symptoms of hemolytic anemia: disorientation, fatigue, listlessness, pale gums, and rapid heartbeat. As the disease progresses, they can also develop darkened urine, jaundice, and vomiting.

2. Foods That Have Gone Bad
Some dogs serve as little vacuum cleaners, cleaning up all the crumbs on the floor, but that doesn’t mean they can double as a living compost bin. If a food has mold or you think it has otherwise spoiled, don’t feed it to your dog. And take care to keep trash cans and compost bins in a place where the dog can’t get into them.

3. Fried or Fatty FoodsFoods that are overly fatty, such as fried chicken, are very toxic foods for dogs, says Hartogensis. If they eat enough, their pancreases can become inflamed. causing those organs to produce enzymes that can severely damage your pet’s intestines. This can be life-threatening, says Hartogensis: “It’s really scary to watch a dog come in with pancreatitis because they’re just vomiting like crazy.”

4. Grapes
Scientists aren’t sure exactly why grapes are one of the most toxic foods for dogs, or which compound in them makes dogs so sick, says Hartogensis, but there’s been a well-established association between grapes and acute kidney failure in some pups. This includes currants and raisins, which can deliver an even stronger toxic punch than a grape, because the fruits are dried and therefore the compounds are more concentrated than they are in grapes. If your pooch sneaks a grape while you’re not looking, even if it’s just one, watch for signs of kidney failure, which can initially include diarrhea and vomiting, and then abdominal pain, dehydration, lethargy, low urine output, and weakness, according to the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine. The smaller the dog, the fewer grapes it will take to make them sick.

5. Macadamia Nuts
Dogs seem to be the only species that can’t tolerate macadamia nuts, says Hartogensis: “Nobody has really figured out the toxic principle here.” A dog would have to eat a fair amount of macadamia nuts to get sick, Hartogensis says, but if they do, they can get depression, fever, muscle weakness, and vomiting. Pet owners should keep their dogs away from all nuts in general, Hartogensis says, but especially keep an eye on macadamia nuts.

6. Raw Meat--This one is controversial, please see comments one on

 www.consumerreports.org/pet-products/toxic-foods-for-dogs

You wouldn’t stick a piece of raw meat into your mouth, so why would you feed it to your dog? Uncooked meats can harbor potentially deadly bacteria such as E. coli and Salmonella, which can wreak havoc on the digestive system. While dogs are typically less prone to infections from bacteria like these than humans are, the bacteria can still make them sick, says Hartogensis. After working with raw meat, avoid potentially contaminating your dog’s food and treats by washing your hands thoroughly before dipping your fingers into their bone bag.

7. Salty Snacks
In large amounts, foods containing excess salt can cause sodium ion poisoning in dogs, leading to depression, diarrhea, high fever, excessive thirst, kidney damage, seizures, and vomiting, says Hartogensis: “It’s almost like they get drunk,” she says. A potato chip or a pretzel probably won’t do much damage, but a whole bag might, according to the FDA. Make sure your dog has enough water at all times, especially if they’ve dipped into some salty snacks.

8. Xylitol
More and more, manufacturers are adding this low-calorie sugar substitute to processed foods and other products such as baked goods, breath mints, gums, mouthwashes, toothpastes, and more. Dog owners may not know that even just a little bit of the sweetener can cause a rapid spike in their insulin levels, which could cause their blood sugar to plummet to dangerous lows. “Even just a few pieces of gum can be pretty toxic,” says Hartogensis. Small dogs are especially vulnerable since the effects are dose-dependent. Symptoms of xylitol poisoning initially include vomiting, and can later progress to fainting, seizures, staggering, and weakness.

What about our feline friends? Cats can similarly be sensitive to certain foods, such as alliums, but according to the FDA, they are pickier eaters than dogs, and are less likely to eat something that will make them sick.

If you think your pet has been poisoned, first take the food away so that he or she doesn’t eat any more of it, says Hartogensis. Then you should call your veterinarian. If a vet is not available, you can contact the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center (888-426-4435).The ASPCA might charge a consultation fee.

My note: Check out the FDA's site for 

Search on www.fda.gov for "Good Dog, Bad Food: Foods for People That Are Bad for Your Dog"

Is Pet Insurance Worth the Cost?

Mama's friend asked her to check Consumer Reports to see what they recommend about pet insurance. Dad will want to read this also. 

Like medical coverage for people, pet insurance policies are complicated. Here’s what we found when we analyzed the coverage from three health insurers.
Consumer Reports /  Mandy Walker / Last updated: March 30, 2016

Two years ago, Elizabeth Newsom-Stewart’s cat Fawkes ate part of a lily plant leaf. Newsom-Stewart, then a veterinary student at Cornell University, immediately knew the danger he was in, and rushed him to an animal hospital.

“Some lily plants are toxic to cats” she says, and may cause kidney failure. “Symptoms can take 12 to 24 hours to show. By the time kidney failure occurs, it’s almost always fatal.”

Emergency treatment, which included three days in intensive care, medication, tests, and lots of IV fluids, cost $1,783. But just three months before, Newsom-Stewart bought pet insurance, and it covered $1,327 of the bill. And Fawkes, now 4, made a full recovery.

A serious illness or injury can take a financial toll, even when the patient is a pet. Cancer treatments can easily run $5,000; surgery to fix a torn ACL from, say, a poorly executed jump off the sofa can cost about $3,300. Pet insurance is sold with the promise that by helping to cover some of your pet’s medical bills, you won’t be forced to consider “economic euthanasia” in the most dire circumstances.

But as helpful and emotionally comforting as it might be, is insurance really worth the price?

About 1.4 million pets in the U.S. and Canada were covered by a plan at the end of 2014, according to the North American Pet Health Insurance Association, a trade group. That’s less than 1 percent of about 174 million pet cats and dogs, but up from 680,000 policies in 2008. Some of the increase may be linked to a surprising fact: Pet insurance is one of the fastest-growing optional employee benefits.

Major policy providers include the ASPCA (through Hartville), Embrace, Healthy Paws, PetFirst, Petplan, and Trupanion. Most cover only cats and dogs, but one company, Nationwide (formerly Veterinary Pet Insurance), also insures birds, rabbits, snakes, turtles, and other animals.

How the Plans Works

Like people insurance, pet policies come with a variety of deductibles, co-payments, and premiums. Unlike people coverage, you usually have to pay the vet bills in full and wait for reimbursement. But Trupanion launched a service in February that can disburse payments directly to vets on the day of service. The company says about 60 percent of its bills are already processed that way.

The cost of coverage can increase depending on your pet’s breed (purebreds cost more to insure because they’re more prone to some hereditary conditions), age (plans may cost more as your pet gets older), the rising cost of veterinary care, and the coverage options you choose, such as your deductible amount. Embrace and Healthy Paws pay a flat percentage of covered costs after your deductible is met. Other companies calculate reimbursements based on the “usual and customary costs” of vet care in your area. Embrace lets you pick the annual maximum amount it will cover each year ($5,000, $8,000, $10,000, or $15,000); Healthy Paws and Trupanion have no annual ceiling.

Almost all policies exclude pre-existing conditions and may exclude breed-specific conditions (or charge you more to cover them).

What They Cover

You can pick a plan that insures costs due to accidents (such as injuries caused by motor vehicles), or accidents and illness (including arthritis, cancer, and colitis). Some providers also offer wellness coverage for certain routine care, like annual exams, flea and tick treatments, and vaccinations. Eighty-one percent of pet insurance policies are accident and illness plans for dogs; 14.6 percent provide the same kind of coverage for cats and other pets. Only about 4 percent of the market is made up of accident-only and wellness coverage.

The insurance trade group says that accident and illness coverage per year averaged $473 for dogs and $285 for cats in 2014. Accident-only policies ran $158 and $132, respectively.

To compare costs, we asked four providers—Embrace, Healthy Paws, Nationwide, and Trupanion—whose parent companies comprise roughly 75 percent of the market, to estimate what their accident and illness policies would cover for a specific dog and cat. After initially agreeing, Nationwide decided it would only provide data for its policy that had accident, illness, and wellness coverage, so we didn’t include the company in our analysis.

We used the vet bills of Guinness, an almost 12-year-old Labrador mix from Westchester County, N.Y., and Freddie, a mixed-breed cat from Fairfield County, Conn., who’s almost 9.

Guinness had few health problems over the years until he was diagnosed with skin cancer last fall. Treating him required two costly surgeries and expensive follow-up care.

Freddie has been relatively healthy; he had one pricey dental cleaning under anesthesia, and has been prescribed cat food and medication to treat infections. We did our analysis assuming that their owners had signed them up for coverage when they were just a few weeks old, and we adjusted each medical-care charge into present-day dollars to judge how their expenses would have been covered.

Playing the Odds

For Freddie, only the Healthy Paws policy would have paid out more than it cost, in part because of its lower premiums.

If you have a pet like Guinness with a costly condition or illness you want to treat, we found that pet insurance may pay out more than it costs you. In our exercise, a Healthy Paws plan was the only one that paid more than it cost.

But if his owner continues to cover cancer treatments, all three plans may be worth it. In 2015, for example, Healthy Paws and Trupanion would have reimbursed the owner over $3,000 more than they would have charged for coverage. Embrace would have covered more than $4,000 over the cost of its plan

Of course, our results are for a single cat and dog; vet bills are different for every animal, and there’s no way to predict whether your pet will become sick or injured. But if you’d like help with unexpected, large vet bills, a plan may be worth considering.

Talk with your vet about the medical costs your pet’s breed will usually incur, and ask about his experience with different pet insurers.

Download sample policies from insurance websites and read them thoroughly for limitations, exceptions, and co-payments. Consider skipping wellness coverage if possible and paying for it out of pocket. Last year routine vet care cost cat owners just $196 and dog owners only $235, according to the American Pet Products Association.

If you don’t want to pay for pet insurance, consider starting an emergency savings fund for pet care instead. If you find you need help with a big pet medical bill, the Humane Society has a list of organizations that may help pay for it.

More Ways to Save

Take steps to keep your pet healthy to trim medical costs

• Ask your vet which vaccines you can skip. Some effectively prevent serious and costly diseases, says Louise Murray, D.V.M., a veterinarian and vice president of the ASPCA’s Bergh Memorial Animal Hospital in New York City. But ringworm, for example, is a mild condition and its vaccine isn’t that effective, she says.
• Guard against parasites. Fleas can cause life-threatening anemia, and ticks can spread Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. An inexpensive topical solution can keep the bugs at bay.
• Spay or neuter your pet. Doing so can help prevent health problems, including some cancers. Many shelters or chapters of the ASPCA provide low-cost or no-cost spayor neuter surgery.

Click here for more info: http://www.consumerreports.org/pet-products/is-pet-insurance-worth-cost/

Editor's Note: This article also appeared in the May 2016 issue of Consumer Reports magazine.

Good advice

Do you know how to approach a dog correctly? Approaching a dog so that it does not feel threatened can help prevent dog bites from occurring.

May 15-21 is National Dog Bite Prevention Week.

Happy Mother's Day

The Real Top Dog

Cesar's Way / May 1, 2016

By Cesar Millan

When you hear the term “alpha male,” what do you think of? You probably see some loud, powerful, overbearing man in a position of leadership — a CEO, professional athlete, or drill sergeant.

These images all tend toward negative stereotypes about masculinity: insensitive, loud, opinionated, and pushy. An alpha male resolves conflict by escalating it and then winning in combat, whether actual or symbolic.

So when people use the expression “alpha” in the dog world, they tend to think of the same negative images, seeing the alpha as the aggressive leader who will attack and kill any challengers. But that’s never what the term meant in the dog world. The alpha is just the dog (or mating pair) leading the pack

To put it in perspective, here’s one example of an extremely alpha male: Gandhi.

That may seem surprising. After all, wasn’t Gandhi a pacifist, determined to achieve his goals through peaceful resistance instead of armed conflict? He never gave the impression of being physically strong and was never loud or bossy. Nobody could seem farther from being the classic alpha male, right?

And yet Gandhi led his fellow Indians into a revolution that took on one of the world’s most formidable empires, and they won, becoming an independent nation again.

Gandhi’s secret to being a great leader was his calm, assertive energy — and this is also the key to being a true alpha, whether you’re a dog or a human. A leader cannot lead through fear or intimidation. They may be able to control their followers for a while, but it’s a following created by coercion. Since it’s not based on trust or respect, it will fall apart at the first opportunity.

After all, how many dictators wind up being assassinated by their own military or inner circle?

The difference with humans is that we will follow an unstable leader who uses strong-arm tactics to bully us into control because they often use arguments based on emotion, usually fear of the unknown.

Dogs don’t work like this. If an unstable dog tries to become the alpha, the other dogs will either not follow at all or, if it becomes too extreme, they’ll gang up and drive that dog from their pack without hesitation.

Researchers found a perfect example of a true alpha in the Yellowstone Park wolf pack. He was a male known as M21. He never lost a fight to a rival, but he never killed a rival he defeated. According to Yellowstone’s biological technician Rick McIntyre, one of M21’s favorite things to do was to wrestle and play-fight with the wolf pups. But what he really loved, McIntyre explained, “Was to pretend to lose. He just got a huge kick out of it.”

Of course, the other big difference between human, wolf, and dog alphas is that the canines have always allowed either males or females to assume the leadership role. They don’t decide based on gender. They decide based on energy. It looks like humans are only just catching up to that one.

So the secret to being the alpha is to always have calm, assertive energy to earn your dog’s trust, respect, and loyalty. The only thing that changes is the degree of assertiveness you may have to use. A timid dog requires very little assertiveness provided that you’re calm enough, and it goes up the scale from there. An aggressive dog requires a much more physical correction.

The only dogs I’ve ever had to put into a submission position are those that are trying to be overly dominant themselves. This isn’t a technique that I learned from any trainer or behaviorist, though. I learned it from the dogs themselves. It’s exactly what a mother dog will do to correct her pups when they’re out of line — roll them on their backs and hold them down until they submit. She isn’t trying to intimidate or coerce them, though. She’s making a simple statement of fact: “I’m the one in charge here.”

The secret to being the alpha — the Pack Leader — is to find the right balance between being calm and being assertive and remembering that a true leader will use whatever technique is necessary to maintain control, but always from a place of love.

Stay calm, and let your dogs respect you.

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